This is an interesting science project. The growth of a plant is better in the absence of bacteria. A fact that no one who has studied horticulture will deny. Another fact is that if you boil something you kill the bacteria on it and sterilize it. Agreed to that one too since most of us have seen sterilization in progress at some location or the other.

So if we boil beans to sterilize them will they grow better and into plants faster? Plus dry seeds take time to absorb water to germinate. Will the boiling process speed up germination too? Of course cooking the beans for too long would make it impossible to grow. So what’s the optimum time to soak and boil the beans? Or does boiling the beans even a wee bit kill them and no plant will ever grow from them? That’s what we hope to find out with this science project.

What we need is a bag full of lentil beans. About 50 of them. Now divide them into groups of 10 each and place them in different bowls. Each of the five bowls will get a different treatment. One set will be used as control and planted into a pot. The second one will be soaked for 24 hours and then planted in a pot.

The third set get to soak 24 hour and then boiled for a minute before being planted in the pot. The fourth set get the 24 hour soaking and a 5 minute boiling before they go into the pot. Last lot gets soaked 24 hours and boiled for 10 minutes before being planted in the pot. Now observe the 5 pots for a month and record observations every week. You may be surprised at the observations you get in this science project.

In the previous experiment we tried to find out just how adding salt to water before boiling it affected the time it took to boil water and its temperature. In this post we’ll discover how such a simple activity can be combined into a full scale science project. By merely increasing a few variables in the same experiment and performing it repeatedly with these variable you can have an attractive science project ready in no time at all.

The key to it all is taking a number of readings as you substitute the variable. Now you can just just salt or you can add different things such as sugar or vinegar to the boiling water. Or just take salt in different amounts such as one tablespoon or two or three for the different repetitions of the experiment. Make sure that you adjust the data recording and hypothesis according to your choice of variable.

Now do the actual experiment and keep good records. Remember you will be using the data you collect in tables to demonstrate the variable’s effect on the simple process of boiling water. You can draw conclusions based on the data that you collect and either support or modify your hypothesis so that it works for the science project. There’s a lot your can play around with, so have fun experimenting.

In many cook books we read the preliminary instruction which says add salt to water before boiling it. Finding out why is going to be the aim of this science experiment. Does adding the salt to the water make it boil faster? Or does adding salt to the water make it boil at a higher temperature which may be required for the recipe? That’s what you will hope to find out as you perform this science experiment.

What all will you need for this process? Table salt, naturally, and distilled water so that no other factor affects the boiling temperature. Plus you will need a thermometer to check accurately just what the temperature of the boiling water is. And of course a timer to check how soon the water boiled. You will also need a spoon to shovel the salt into the water. And of course a container in which the water will be boiled.

Now make sure that an adult is aware that you are performing the experiment as the heating the water is potentially dangerous. It would be best to enlist your parent’s help as you set about doing this experiment. First you need to boil a cup of water without salt and see how long it took to reach boiling point. Measure the temperature with care. In the second round you add a tablespoon of salt to the water and make the same recordings. Now you will be able to reach the right result for your science project.

The generation of electrical power is one of the basic needs for maintaining our lifestyle. For this purpose many science projects keep trying to find more efficient ways of power generation and utilization. Alternative sources of power generation are big business today as the traditionally used fossil fuels are just not going to last much longer.

To this effect any science fair project dealing with energy generation will be an eye catching one for the judges. Toss in an unlikely method of generating energy and you may even have a prize winning project. For our project of a fruit powered battery we are going to use a simple circuit with a multi meter that can measure low voltages.

Add alligator clips to the circuit to be attached to the fruit and collect a basket of different types of fruit. You can even add a small light to the circuit to see if it can be lit at the voltage produced.  Now we are ready to record which fruit is the best producer of electricity. Keep detailed records for the power production of each fruit that you use.

You can use the data collected in a tabular form on your display board. Also have the fresh fruit handy for the judges to use on the circuit. Remember each fruit will be used just once. Have fun playing with your science fair project.

Your science project does not have to be complicated to be good. Even a simple machine will do the job. If you build a lever, pulley, inclined plane, wheel and axle, and wedge and make a working machine out of the combination it will be a fantastic science fair project. It will be simple to make as each of these does not take much effort.

It will also have the advantage of using multiple parts of simple machines to make a complex machine. Imagine the old Tom and Jerry cartoons where the mouse trap is so complicated looking. It is essentially a series of simple machines being used together for one single objective, that of a mouse trap. Of course its a different matter that the traps always end up back firing when clever little Jerry is involved.

Now think of a simple task that you would like performed. Decide how many steps it will take to perform the task. Now split up each step into a simple machine that you would like to do the action. Put it all together and attach the simple machines to each other so that there is a domino type of effect and viola you have a killer science fair project all set to go.

If all the science projects were put together some of the most interesting ones would deal with flying. And since getting around in cars can get a bit tedious if you get stuck in a traffic jam it is natural to think that it would be better to make that personal family car fly to the destination of your choice.

So will flying cars ever come out of sci fi movies and books and become a reality? That’s a question that car designers have been asking themselves for decades. Some designs have worked and many other have not. But with each failure the eventual success gains credibility.

Of course once you have real flying cars around there will be other questions as well. Such as how would a flying car be classified? As an aircraft or as a road vehicle. What will be the fuel that it will use? Will it be a green car or will it guzzle non renewable resources? Of course these are minor questions when dealing with the actual thing.

So how soon can you expect the first flying car to be parked in the family garage? Not for a decade as yet, but its coming. And just maybe that science fair project model that you are working on in your garage is the prototype.

Many voice artists take good care of their voices by avoiding a number of food and drink items.  These include a number of spicy foods and aerated drinks. It also includes drinking chilled water. Here we will take the help of a science experiment to see if a singer’s voice gets adversely affected by drinking cold water.

You will need some equipment to record your voice. You can use a mic with the PC as well. Some cold water. A volunteer to sing or you can do it on your own. The hypothesis that we are testing is that drinking cold water makes it difficult for a person to sing naturally. For this we will have to make two sound recordings of the same person singing the same song.

Once before the person drinks cold water and the second time immediately after the person has drunk a glass of cold water. You can pick any song that the person can sing comfortably. It does not have to be some difficult tune, the alphabet song or happy birthday to you will do. Just make sure that they know that they must sing the same song both before and after drinking the cold water.

Now record the observations you have made of the two different sound tracks. Does the voice quality get affected by the cold water? Now this science project will prove if the singers really need to avoid cold water or not.

A useful science fair project can be made out of an experiment that you decide to conduct. However the crux of the matter says that the experiment should do something useful such as answer a specific question. It does not have to be a complicated question that no one has ever answered before.

You can happily leave such complicated stuff and experiments to professionals, but is it not possible for you to come up with a question about something around you? A question that can be answered by an experiment that carefully monitors data? You can do something as simple as watching and recording to saplings grow in different parts of the house.

The basic question here would be something as simple as do plants kept in a sunny room grow faster and healthier than plants kept in a room without a window. Now get the two identical plant saplings and get started with keeping a record of their growth each week. Keep all the data ready in your journal to make attractive charts and graphs.

Study all the differences that appear on the physical aspect of the plants. Record any specific incidents that caused a spurt of growth for a particular plant. And there you have it a great comparative study in plant growth answering a specific question. It may not be an exciting science project but it will be a useful one to prove a fact.

The presence of different types of charts and graphs on the display board at the science fair exhibition help the judges understand just how much effort you have put into your science fair project. That does not mean that you can just pick out any odd charts at random, they must be related to your project.

The best thing to do is to use the data that you have collected in your journal over the period that you built the science fair project to make your own charts and graphs. You can make charts with visuals of how the experiment worked out. You can use your hypothesis to cover one chart as well. Use any visually appealing diagram for the charts.

You will have to be a bit more careful when it comes to the graphs. Different types of graphs are used to represent different kind of data. For instance – A bar graph is used when compare quantities. A line graph can be used to show progress of individual parts of the experiment over a specific time frame. Then a circle graph to show parts of a whole. Charts and graphs help organize your data and present it in an easy to understand manner for the science fair judges.

A journal is any notebook in which you record what data you collect.  You can keep a journal for any purpose. It can be a record of your progress with whichever activity you choose. It is advisable to keep a journal when you embark on your long journey of making a science fair project.

It will make it easier for you to keep track of ideas that you have and information that you collect if you keep a regular journal. If you have chosen an experiment based science fair project, a journal is invaluable. It will help you record the information from each subsequent experiment with accuracy.

You can then use the data that was generated in the various experiments to make charts and graphs as visual representations of the experiment that you conducted. These visual aids can be used on the display board at the science fair. The journal itself must also be part of the display on the final day.

This will help the judges trace your journey in the science fair project that you will present to them. Naturally there are chances of not keeping up with the journal due to getting side tracked. So you must avoid this. Remember the more organized you are the better the chances of winning that Science Fair medal.